236
Gladon Creek, Tributary of the East Fork of the Little Buffalo Overnight Backpack
9/30/16
Fall? Kinda. It's supposed to get down in the low 50's tonight in the Ozarks...sounds good to me. Therefore I headed north Friday afternoon for a quick overnight bluff stay. By 1:45 my way was made into the depths of the East Fork of the Little Buffalo Wilderness Area. I've been in this particular area before here and here and here. By 2:40 my designated slab of rock was before me. Camp was leisurely arranged and much piddling was engaged in for the remainder of the latter aspect of the day. The sky was partly cloudy with a temp near 72° with just a whisper of wind. Tranquility surrounded my ass. I was gently bathed in the afternoon sunlight. The breeze caressed my nether regions. All was at equilibrium.
Sunset came soon enough. My eyes traced the erratic path of the first evening bat as it cleared the air of all the midges that were back lit by the sun just recently. A savory sack of re-hydrated food nuggets were enjoyed as the solarity faded into darkness. A fire was brought forth with no bush-craft nonsense...a mere mini lighter and some paper with the addition of some tiny twiglets did the job just nicely. I never feel the need to scrape sparks from two hunks of hardware into a pile of fluff and then blow the sparks into flame. My small fire lasted to near 9:30. As I made my way to the hammock two skunks called in the distance...my return call was quickly acknowledged. This was a good sign for peaceful sleep.
At 6:30 local birds called me out. The morning was clear and the low temp was 51°. A hearty sack of biscuits and gravy was aimed in general gullet direction. I had not enough fuel to heat water for coffee as the canister was not checked prior to my departure by some idiot. By 8:20 the sun was well on its way, as was I. At 9:00 my recreation delivery unit was well within my field of vision. A robust temp of 61° was attained by the air at this juncture of the day. The total mileage was a dainty 3 miles.
